hmross

I iron even though I know I should press. I just try not to stretch the fabric. If a block is not even or wonky then I square it up. I do usually just press the seams however. If I just try to press my fabric, the wrinkles just do not come out and pressing for me just doesn't do as good as ironing does.

quilt3311

When I iron strip sets, I first lay the strip lengthwise ACROSS the ironing board and press the seams in one direction, then turn the strip over to the right side and press so that any tiny folds that were pressed in, can be pressed flat. Across means the short sides of the ironing board, not lengthwise or the long side of the ironing surface.

ghostrider

Ironing strips, especially those that were cut WOF, can distort them. Width of fabric is a fairly stretchy edge to begin with and you'd be "tugging on the stretch" to iron instead of press.

I was taught* to never press stripsets across the ironing board, to always run them parallel to the board edge...both to avoid stretching and to use the edge as a guide to lay them straight while pressing. (*Louisa Smith, Strips 'n Curves author)

Val in IN

@ virtualbernie: If your strips are getting "curvy" when you sew them together, try sewing a strip, then sew the next one with the opposite end of selvedge on top. Try to always sew an upper selvedge to a lower then the lower to the upper etc. It keeps them from getting an arc in them.

Jersey Gal

Local quilt shop lady told me to press.

karate lady

after reading what is written on here in the past, I press. and I still only do strips ...beginner... :P

karate lady

this is something I learned here too.

penski

the word "pressing" would still apply here, it took a long time for me to learn to press and not iron , but it is worth it to only press when working on quilts

dixiechunk

I aim to press but sometimes when I'm distracted or in a hurry I seem to kick into overdrive and tend to iron. In addition to sewing multiple seams in opposite directions the other trick that works best for me is to press one seam at a time. I rarely sew multiple strips together and then press at one time.

TootieAnn

Yes! I ironed my seams for many years but I finally learned to press them. It really does make a difference in the accuracy of my blocks.